Back to the blog

Having neglected the blog I am going to keep more upto date.

Recently I have added lots of galleries related to the awful but beautiful weather we have had in Yorkshire for the last 6 weeks.

Doncaster Minster II

I spent a couple of nights in Doncaster and several in Saltburn.

Wave and gull

If you visit the website by clicking on the links above you will see that I have been using a Lensbaby Composer and I shall write on my experiences later.

24 Sept - Tilt and shift

Walking The Spa

I have been minimalising my life recently and one of the key issues has been carrying too much camera gear. I therefore carry a maximum of 2 lenses at present, although these can change. One day in August I took just a 45mm tilt and shift lens into Scarborough and experimented with tight depth of field. It is interesting to do this and try and see the world in a different way. It is interesting how ou miss the lenses you have not got until you get into it, when the challenge takes over. I learned a lot by doing this, even though I have used T&S lenses for years.

Scarborough South Bay study 2

Wave along the wall

23 Sept - Hunmanby Gap

Hunmanby Gap study 5

I dashed here for the sunrise today when there was a hint of pink developing. This was one of the occasions that my weather forecasting sites on the net had let me down predicting complete cloud clover. Unfortunately the full moon last night was completely hidden by clouds once again - I checked throughout the night! That means I have not managed a single photo of the full moon or by it's light this year so far as there has been cloud cover every full moon. Well there is always next month.


Hunmanby Gap has a cafe and not much else, except vast beaches - the best place for locals in summer as the tourists do not flock here as much as Filey and Scarborough.
High tide was only a couple of hours before I arrived and so it was still up. The sea was calm and so I even photographed from within it. This is helped by the beach being rather flat. There are no rocks and so one has to create foreground interest, such as using patterns in the sand as shown here.

22 Sept - Filey

Filey pool study 1

There is a swimming pool along the seafront at the Glen Gardens end. I have wanted to photograph it for a long time, but never got round to it. In winter it is empty.

This is processed with a blue filter to highlight the contrast between the pool and its surrounds. I also wanted the sea in the background - blurred by long exposures of 30, 60 and 120 seconds, blended as an HDR in Photomatix Pro and then monochromed in Photochop and tinted in Lightroom.

21 Sept - Aldbrough - coastal erosion

Aldbrough - Road to nowhere

Another village on the East Yorkshire coast. There is a caravan park and little else. Bleak in winter it has good Holderness cliffs to walk along as access to the beach is difficult. The village is just inland but as the photo below shows the sea is getting closer.

The Holderness coast is one of the fastest eroding coastlines in Europe, losing an average of 2 metres per year. Underlying the cliffs is Cretaceous chalk, but it is the glacial till (soft boulder clay) that is being eroded.

20 Sept - Withernsea

On annual leave or a few days. Managed to take the whole day for me and went to Withernsea, where I spent all mornng on the beach. I love the solitude one can find just roaming on the sand and looking out to sea, listening to the waves and the gulls. Unfortunately one usually meets dogs and their masters/mistresses. Sometimes one even meets the presents they leave. Withernsea has a beach that is supposedly not for dogs, but as usual I met no-one to stop them and it seems to me that many dog owners come with a lable of not being able to read - certainly the dogs can't.
I spoke to only one person and she was picking up the litter in the 'protected' part of the beach - she said she did this voluntarily - good for her. Sad though that she has to do it because of our inability to see and appreciate beauty without the need to deface it.

Withernsea beach study 1

19 September - Lots of new photos due

I am adding lots of new photos to the website in the next couple of days. This is because I have finally finished processing the photos from my trip to Scotland, and I have decided to put more local Yorkshire coast images on as I am being requested for a lot that used to be there or I have not added.

Bridlington South Bay beach

29 August - Whitby for dawn

Although it was windy at least it was not raining. Long exposures require robust gear and I have a great carbon fibre tripod and am happy that it is rigid. I wedged it against a fence as well to decrease the chance of the wind blowing it over - this happened 2 years ago and broke my Canon 1DS3.

Across the harbour

I took a few shots today, all of which I am happy with. The exposures were upto 16 minutes, although this one was a mere 240 seconds (4 minutes). I converted it to black and white in Photoshop CS5 and tinted it in Lightroom.

I have put another shot from today on the main website.

29 August - Captive/Wild

Cheetah

My latest project to be aired publicly is the above. It is now on the website mainprize.net, where 32 of the 72 images are displayed and available for purchase as 40x40cm limited editions. All the images will be collected in a book that will soon be available.

Black rhino

The project's main aim was to capture creatures in their native freedom and also locked up for our benefit, and perhaps in some cases for theirs. I did not set out to make tis a political project as some zoos undoubtably contribute to conservation.

View the images

Let me know what you think about the photographs.

Starling

27 August - How to relax

Sometimes it can be so relaxing to just sit and watch the sea. This is a 150 second exposure of the sea at Bridlington.

Bridlington peace

23 Aug - Folkton field

The patterns and light on this field often attract my attention as I drive passed. It has lots of undulations, and the bushes at the top always draw my eye. So today I stopped and captured the green lines of the field. This was converted to black and white infrared and levels were adjusted using Silver Efex Pro. I then tinted it in Lightroom to produce the image below:

Folkton field study 1

21 Aug - impressionism

Ghost ship

The above image was shot in March this year and shows one of the tourist boats out of Bridlington harbour. It is one of my impressionist photos created by moving the camera during a slow exposure and is taken towards sunset to get the colour in the sky.

The images below are 2 of my favourite Monet-esque photos which are also created by shaking the camera during the exposure. With this technique you never quite know what you are going to get and the image depends on the speed of movement, amount of light and the length of time the shutter is open. Experimentation is paramount.

Rhodedendron wood

Through the wood

Here is one of my monochrome landscape taken on the recent trip to Argyll. It was taken at sunrise as a long exposure to get the dynamism of the sky and to smooth out the water.

Loch Etive

It is part of my 'Obsenity of Filth' project, in which I am documenting what I feel to be man's negative influence on the landscape. In this image there is the pylon and wires stretching across this gorgeous view. Other images I have displayed so far from this project include Double desecration on 2nd May.

16 August - Returned from Scotland

Returned with hundreds of images to process. Needless to say most are of the kids, however I believe I have some excellent landscape shots that I am very happy with. here is the first of Loch Etive looking down towards the Connel Bridge:

Loch Etive study 1

West coast of Scotland trip

I am currently in my second week of a trip to the west coast of Scotland. My present residence is a cottage attached to Toward lighthouse. This location is fantastic as it looks out on the sea from two aspects and e garden is straight out onto the shore. I have many long exposure shots and some beautiful sunrises to share. However it is currently pouring, which is good in a way as it gives me chance to go through some of the images.

The first week was spent on a caravan site at Bridge of Awe. It rained a lot and There was only one decent sunrise in the whole week. Unfortunately I got up every morning at 04:00 to check that the weather forecast was correct. Asa soon a I get chance I will post a few pics and expand the details of the photography week and the lessons learned.

Location:Toward lighthouse

29 July - Some photos from the last month

Common woodpigeon (Columba palumbus) flies over

Here are a couple of shots from my 'Captive and Wild' project. This aims to show nature in its wild state and that that is held captive by humans, sometimes 'for it's own sake' and sometimes for ours. I'll let you choose which when I put the gallery on the mainprize.net website in the next month or so.

Wild - mandarin duck (Aix galericulata)

Captive - Hornbill

Red kite (Milvus milvus)

Art? - Go and express yourself

Common woodpigeon (Columba palumbus)

I continue to explore photographic art. I much prefer the impressionist style as it allows me to create more than just a photograph. I appreciate this style is not for everyone, but as I surf many photographers sites I ask what is different? What is unique? Many take the same view with just slightly different light.

This weekend I visited The Red Bus Gallery at Burton Agnes Hall, to see a friend's photographic exhibition. He has taken some gorgeous images of the Yorkshire coast at the extremes of the day, and has started experimenting with movement and dynamism within his shots. I had told him about a programme called Fractalius that I had been impressed by, but cannot use as it is PC only and I use Macs. He had sold a great photo of Roseberry Topping to  a couple who had appreciated photos by Joe Cornish and others, but bought Ian's shot because it was different to all the others. Check the image out on his website.

Whilst I appreciate straight photos are for some, why not experiment and put a bit of yourself across in your creations.

Check out Ian Meek's site here - Clearview Photos.

My return

I have been doing photographic projects and the first has just been added to my website:
www.mainprize.net

This depicts an abstract view of the mountains and valleys in Switzerland. We stayed in Lauterbrunnen, having driven there from Geneva. Interestingly the Swiss transport network is so good and reliable that we did not use the car at all until we returned to the airport.

The photos were processed in Lightroom and Photoshop. If you want specifics just let me know.

19 May - Cayton Bay

A gorgeous Cayton Bay sunrise just before high tide.

Cayton Bay ruins

Taken in RAW and processed in Lightroom, then converted with Silver Efex Pro to B&W.

17 May - Muston moths

2 new species for the year with one male of each:
buff ermine
white ermine
Also 5 hebrew character, 1 common quaker and 3 powdered quaker.

16 May - Yorkshire coast impressionism

Since my last photographic post I have concentrated on impressionistic images. These demonstrate the play of and interaction of light and often reduce the form of the subjects to abstract. Here are a few:

Bridlington south bay 1

Filey Dams 1

Filey Dams 2

Greylag geese

Mere water lilies 1

16 May - Muston moths

Pretty poor. Twice in the last week I have run the moth trap and only got 6 species:

Powdered quaker (Orthosia gracilis)
Common quaker (Orthosia cerasi)
Hebrew character (Orthosia gothica)
Shuttle-shaped dart (Agrotis puta)
Flame shoulder (Ochropleura plecta)
Early grey (Xylocampa areola)

The highest number of any of the species was 5.

Flame shoulder 

Shuttle-shaped dart

Things will hopefully pick up when the nights warm up.

02 May - A variable week on the Yorkshire coast

A week of variable weather. It is hard to believe that a few days ago most were wandering around in short-sleeved T-shirts when now they cannot get enough layers on.

Here are a few shots from the week.

The herald

A bank of cloud approaches bringing with it another deluge to the North Yorkshire coast.

Into the bay

These rocks are rarely seen as they are located in an area of Scarborough that few seem to go, in fact I have never seen anyone else there unless the tide is right out.

Filey bank 2

This bank of lesser celandines and daffodils looked beautiful and heralded the arrival of spring.

Beach sun

Filey Bay - exposed for the sun reflecting on the wet sand then brightened with fill-light and dodging in Lightroom and Photoshop.

Raincliffe anemones

I used a 24 mm tilt and shift lens to shorten the depth of field and emphasise the flowers in the foreground.

Beacon and beach

Filey at night with Flamborough lighthouse in the distance.

Double desecration

Taken in Cayton Bay this is part of my Obsenity of Filth project - how man leaves a mark that defaces the beauty of nature.

Photographer of May - Simon Roberts

Simon Roberts travels in a camper van and thoroughly covers his project. My favourite is his 'We English' project. This is my most visited site last month as I gain inspiration from several of his images. Currently he is covering the UK general election.

25 April - Muston moths

I ran the moth trap last night and trapped 57 individuals:


38 Hebrew characters (Orthosia gothica), 5 Clouded drabs (Orthosia incerta)

7 Common quakers (Orthosia cerasi)

4 Early greys (Xylocampa areola)

2 Powdered quaker (Orthosia gracilis)

and a single March moth (Alsophila aescularia).

18 April - Spring is here in Filey

Fantastic displays of mainly yellow flowers are everywhere. Tourists have arrived in droves. It must be spring.

Filey daffs

 

Searching a receding tide

18 April - Week to this date in Scarborough

An early morning spent at North Bay in Scarborough, avoiding the rubbish on the beach. It is such a pity that people arrive at our gorgeous coast and cast their filth for others to clean up. Some have abused the council for inadequate cleaning but the miscreants that do not clean up after themselves must surely take the blame.
Anyway there was a flock of ruddy turnstones (Arenaria interpres) starting their moult into breeding plumage collecting by the lifeboat ramps. This shot was for 30 seconds to capture their movement.

Turnstones

Watching the ashy sunrise

This week there were supposed to be stunning sunrises and sunsets due to the ash cloud over the country from the Icelandic volcano. Unfortunately these have not really materialised on the Yorkshire coast due to too much cloud or too little! Above was one of the best as there was just a little cloud.